If your thinking about starting a social media business, there are 6 steps you’ll need to master to ultimately be successful. It may take years to gain the business knowledge to master all of these, but you can start working on them immediately.

1) Setting Up Your Social Media Business

To get your business setup you’ll have to start with the “hanging a shingle” type of activities to present yourself as a legitimate business. You’ll need a business name, a logo, a website and business cards. These don’t have to be perfect, they just have to be good enough for you to be taken seriously. Don’t waste too much time or money on these things — once you have clients and are making money you can re-evaluate.

2) Marketing Your Social Media Business

To effectively market your business you’ll want to come across as professional and organized with marketing assets that wow potential clients. Consider a brochure that outlines your services – most people don’t read these word for word, but they make you look good and explain what you do. You’ll also want a presentation and ideally a social media presence.

3) Prospecting Social Media Clients

If you build it, they won’t come. Just because you start a business doesn’t mean you’ll magically have an endless flow of clients beating down your door. You’ll want to identify businesses that are appropriate for you and get in-front of them. Finding potential clients who have money and can benefit from social media is key.

4) Getting Clients with Pitching and Proposals

Closing the deal with clients isn’t always easy. You’ll need to figure out your pricing and how you want to package your services. This is the most difficult part for most businesses – they don’t know how much to charge and what to include. Next, you’ll need to create great proposals to close deals.

5) Executing and Delivering World-Class Social Media

Once you’ve landed the client you want to keep them excited by delivering great social media marketing. Processes for setup and management are key to streamlining your communication with your clients and making it easier for you to actually do social media for a business.

6) Retaining Customers and Keeping Them Happy

Finally — keep your customers happy. Do nice things for them. Send them reports that show them your results. Keeping clients happy is a big part of your ultimate success, as they can be your best source of new business (referrals).

 

If you want to start a social media business, now is a great time. More and more businesses are realizing the importance of social media and they don’t want to become social media experts – they want to hire someone to do it for them. That is why creating a social media business is a huge opportunity.

If you are thinking of starting a social media business, there are a few things that you’ll want to consider as you get started:

1) How Will You Package Your Services?

Selling a package of services will get you further than billing hourly. Businesses don’t want to know how many hours they get – they want to know what you will do. Create packages to streamline your sales process – this makes it easier for client to say yes. It is important to clearly state exactly what you will deliver.

2) How Will You Find Clients?

Finding clients is always a challenge. Consider your background and figure out what unique skills or market knowledge you have that you can combine with social media to create a niche for yourself. Think about businesses that you could naturally run social media for based on your unique knowledge, or the businesses that you frequent.

3) What Are Your Credentials?

Some small businesses are inundated by social media and search engine experts pitching their services day after day. Many of these are overseas or large social media companies that don’t really get to know their customers. Have a clear idea of why you are different, how your unique background qualifies you as well as your experience and education in social media marketing. You may also consider getting social media certified.

4) Do YOU Have A Business Presence?

If you want to be taken seriously you’ll need to have a business presence for yourself – at least a basic one. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but you need something. You’ll need a logo, business cards and a website. It also helps if you are active on social networks yourself.

5) What Is Your Client Management Process?

Once you’ve landed clients, you’ll want to have a streamlined on-boarding and management process to appear experienced and save time. Create processes to outline how you will on-board clients as well as how you’ll manage their accounts. Many social media managers struggle with delivering social media content – not because they don’t know how to manage social media but because they don’t have a process in place to consistently meet client expectations.

I’ve been working in social media since the beginning, and through Boot Camp Digital I’ve trained tens of thousands (if not more) social media managers and social media marketers. Many people want to know how to be a social media manager. The reality is that as the social media marketing field is still emerging, there continues to be opportunities for marketers to become social media managers and grow their professional opportunities.

Social media continues to grow, so if you are interested in being a social media manager it is a great time. Consider these statistics:

• Social media budgets are expected to double in the next 4 years
• In 2015 it is projected that 95% of businesses will be using social media
• Over half of marketers have generated customers from Facebook
• B-to-B companies that blog generate 67% more leads
• Over 90% of marketers now use content marketing as a part of their social media and online marketing strategy

The statistics speak for themselves — this is a HUGE and GROWING opportunity.
So how do you actually get to be a social media manager?

1) Get Educated and Learn Social Media

Step 1 is to learn about social media. If you don’t have any formal education you may want to consider getting a social media certification or other social media education (credentials can help). If formal training isn’t your style be sure to read about social media subscribe to leading news sites.

2) Get Experience in Social Media

Experience is a must. You can start by managing social media for local businesses, or by helping non-profits with their social media marketing. The key is to get actual experience to learn how it all works.

3) Get Yourself Active on Social Media

Theory only goes so far when it comes to social media – get active and get some real experience as a user. Even if Facebook or Instagram aren’t your thing, try them out so that you know how they work, why people use them and how people use them.

4) Consider Your Career Options

You could become a social media manager for a business and help run their social media marketing, you could join a larger company and be a part of the social media team or you could start your own social media marketing business. Determine the path that is right for you.

5) Land that GIG!

The fact is that there is TONS OF DEMAND FOR SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGERS right now – if you have some experience, are passionate and can demonstrate some knowledge you should find that there is a lot of opportunity. Network within the social media community, or target businesses that need help.

As social media marketing has grown over the past few years (and is projected to continue to grow) more and more business professionals are asking how they can be social media consultants.

Social media is projected to continue to grow – studies suggest that social media budgets will double and almost every business (95% to be exact) will become active on social media. This means that there is demand for social media consultants.

If you are thinking about starting out as a social media consultant, you are probably wondering what steps you should take to become a credible social media consultant and build a business. Importantly, you probably want to know how to get clients!

1) Get Educated in Social Media Marketing

If you’d like to be taken seriously as a consultant in anything, take the time to educate yourself and get some qualifications or credentials. A social media certification helps. Even if you don’t want to get certified, you’ll need to make sure that you really know your stuff. Clients will be paying you to be an expert, so a passive interest probably isn’t good enough. That being said, there are tons of social media training programs that can get you up-to-date.

2) Create Business Assets

You’ll need some basic business assets – like a business name, a logo and a website. Ideally, you’ll also be personally active in social media, although it isn’t necessary. To be taken seriously as a consultant (outside of people who already know you) you’ll want to have business assets to look legitimate.

3) Determine Specifically How You Can Help Businesses

Have a clear idea of how you can help businesses and what value you bring to the table. Will you run their social media? Advise them? Create assets? Figure out the services that you can offer and how your services impact the bottom line of the businesses that you want to reach. You should have a very clear value proposition.

4) Target Clients

The more targeted your approach the more likely you are to be successful. It is best to start with something that builds off of your existing background or experiences. From there you can build a list of the types of businesses that are likely to hire you (and that you can really help)!

5) Prospect, Pitch and Land the Client!

It sounds easy when you write it out, but it isn’t. You’ll need to develop some resources to be effective here like a sales pitch, a presentation and a proposal. Generally it will take a few meetings to make it through all of these steps.

6) Build Out Workflows

Have a clear plan around how you will work with a business. What happens when? Who is responsible for everything? Create processes and workflows so that things don’t slip through the cracks.

7) Execute

Execute with excellence and continue to bring value back to the clients. Remember, you always want to continue to build on a good impression and keep your clients happy.

There is huge demand for social media consultants and experts – get started now so that you can be on the leading edge. Discover exactly how you can start your social media business with Launchest.

I’ve been doing social media marketing for many years now (yes, since the very beginning in 2007) and social media is truly growing into a huge industry. More and more businesses are getting active on social media, and it is projected that by 2015 over 95% of businesses will have a social media presence.

There is no better time to start your own social media business.

Starting your own business can be difficult — even if you already know social media marketing or are a certified social media marketer. To get started with your own social media business, you’ll need to be sure to address the following areas:

1) Get Your Business Setup

Nobody will take you seriously if you don’t have a website, a logo and business cards (and you’ll also need a business name). Get these aspects of your business setup quickly. Initially, don’t worry about perfection – you need something good that represents you well, but you don’t need to pay thousands of dollars for a website and a designer. Go for fast and good enough. Once you start making money you can upgrade.

2) Decide Which Services You’ll Offer

It can be tricky to decide what you want to offer as your initial services. Stick to things that you know well and can easily execute. Most social media businesses offer consulting, social media management, social media account setup and coaching. When you get started it is usually easiest to focus on a few services instead of trying to do everything. You’ll want to make sure that you have a plan and a process for the services you offer vs. just winging it. For example, if someone hires you for social media management, what is your first step, second step, etc. What do you do when? What do you need from the client?

3) Hone in on Businesses to Target

As you get started, you’ll be more successful if you start with targeted businesses. This will help you to craft service offerings that are appropriate for the businesses you are focused on. Be sure to choose businesses where you have a high probability of success.

4) Determine your Pricing

Pricing is a HOT question in the world of social media marketing. There are pretty big ranges in what people charge for services. Generally on the low-end social media management starts at $500 per month and can go up to tens of thousands of dollars a month. Your pricing should be based on your experience and the businesses you are targeting.

5) Find Businesses to Pitch

Before pitching and selling, start with prospecting. Consider the types of businesses that would make good clients for you based on your experience and knowledge, as well as your product offering. You’ll need to dig in and do some research here.

6) Selling Your Services

Here you’ll need to have a great presentation, a strong proposal and a professional business process and setup. As you look to sell your services you’ll want to be sure that you have all of the assets you need to be professional and prepared.

7) Follow-Up and Proposal

A great proposal can make of break whether or not you get a client. Make sure you have a great proposal and that you follow-up appropriately.

8) Execution

You’ll have to be able to actually deliver on your proposal, so make sure that you understand the client expectations and the steps to implementing your social media marketing services. It is helpful to have a process to kick-off your engagement and keep the client apprised of progress over time.

9) Continued Success

Even if you execute your services well, if you don’t manage your client you probably won’t have a happy client. Make sure you have a plan in place to keep them up to date and in-the-loop. You want them to continue to believe that you are adding value.

10) Referrals and Recommendations

Most businesses live or die by referrals and recommendations. Build a process to generate referrals from happy customers 😉